At the last minute, we decided to head to the eastern shore for a quick
weekend trip.
First stop was the 1st Island of the CBBT. Not much going on. Probably
the fewest birds I have ever seen there. Had one pair of Ruddy
Turnstones, and a few gulls down on the point of the rocks, and that was
about it. From there we swung through the Eastern Shore NWR. Only
thing of note there were a gazillion yellow rumps, and a group of
Flickers near the kayak launch.
We didn't get to Chincoteague until after 4, made a quick trip through
the wildlife loop, then down to the beach for sunset. The wildlife loop
was quite busy with people. The bird of the day was definitely
Cormorants. They were everywhere and large groups of them moving around
the area. There were several Pied Bill Grebes, Mallards, Egrets,
Herons, and Canadas. But not much else.
From there we went down to the beach for sunset. There were Gulls of
every description everywhere down at the beach. The only shorebirds
were some Sanderlings playing in the surf. The sunset was awesome as
the sky was an amazing mix of reds, oranges, and whites....a beautiful
night.
We got up early this morning to head down for sunrise on the beach.
There were some low clouds and it made for a gorgeous sunrise. To top
that off, we had dolphins playing in front of us in the calm surf and a
pair of Bald Eagles on the sound side. We have an off road pass and
drove down to the hook. Tons of gulls again and a few shorebirds....
We went back inland and checked out of the hotel, got breakfast and went
back down to the beach one last time before we headed home. There were
quite a few more people but not but two others in the offroad area. We
saw three more Bald Eagles, one Osprey, one Kestrel, Sanderlings, and
gulls, gulls, everywhere. Cormonrants continued to fly by in large
groups and while watching one group with the binoculars, I noticed
something white in the group...they seperated from the group and landed
on the inshore side of the hook. We rode down further and I spotted the
group of white birds. There were about 200 Snow Geese near an inshore
pool of water. We drove around on the outside and stopped to watch. We
noticed an immature bald eagle in the distance and it got close enough
that it spooked the geese and they all took off and flew right over us.
They flew off over the water, turned and came back and landed back near
the same spot. This same thing happened several more times. I got some
awesome pictures of the geese and then we were treated to a large group
of dolphins playing right off the surf.
I stopped at the visitor center on the way out and the ranger said they
had not had any Snow Geese in the Wildlife Loop pools yet and had only
seen a few stragglers in the area, so this was the first report of the
birds arrival.
It was an awesome weekend there and I hope to have the pictures done
soon, Will post those later.
Have a great week.
Barbara Houston
New Kent, VA
